The 4th International Higher Education Studies Conference (IHEC 2019)

The IVth International Higher Education Studies Conference (IHEC) will be held on October 10-12, 2019 at the School of Education, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey.

Re-envisioning students in higher education: Needs, challenges and opportunities

Higher education has been widely influenced by three fundamental shifts. First, higher demand for access to education due to the changing financial, governmental and societal needs has brought expansion policies all around the world. This has given rise to massification of higher education at both national and international levels. Second, information technologies have been pushing the change in the structure of teaching and learning processes by bringing new technologies and delivery methods into education. Third, mobility trends have diversified the populations within societies including organizations and higher education institutions.

All these above-mentioned developments have led to a more diverse student body in higher education with a wide variety of backgrounds, needs and expectations. In this rapidly changing environment, higher education institutions are expected to respond timely and meaningfully to the needs of the student population. Thus, policy makers and leaders of higher education need to create mechanisms that would allow them to embrace the current student body through an analysis of the opportunities and the differentiated challenges. To this end, two main questions will be explored extensively to better understand the student population and develop ways in which higher education institutions engage this new community of learners into high quality educational experiences.

What are the changes in student population?

How does higher education respond to the constantly changing student community?

Understanding the profile of higher education students and their needs together with the responses of higher education institutions towards this population necessitates the examination of several issues. In this regard, the 4th International Higher Education Studies Conference (IHEC 2019) targets to discuss the topics which must to be considered on the basis of the diverse characteristics of students and their expectations, and the opportunities and challenges they bring to the context of higher education.